


II. Ice

by velithya



Series: Fire/Ice [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XIII
Genre: F/F, gen - Freeform, pre slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-07
Updated: 2012-06-07
Packaged: 2017-11-07 03:44:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/426581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/velithya/pseuds/velithya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lightning doesn't understand why Fang gets called fiery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	II. Ice

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Fang-Lightning](http://fang-lightning.dreamwidth.org) Holiday Prompt 21st December: Ice.  
> Originally posted at the livejournal and dreamwidth communities on 21st December 2010.

**II. Ice**

Lightning doesn't understand why Fang gets called fiery.

She's brash, it's true, loud and argumentative and _annoying_. Some call her flirtatious, even; she wears her sexuality as easily as she wears her sari, but Lightning can tell that it's just a mask, something to be shed as easily as she sheds her sari for sleep.

Because she can read Fang, and sure, there's fire in her eyes - when she's arguing, or when she's facing down a king behemoth. But it's nothing more than smoke shielding the truth - deep down, Fang doesn't have any fire at all.

Because underneath all the bravado and the flirting and false eagerness to fight, Fang's frozen solid.

She hides it well, for the most part, and certainly none of the others have noticed what's wrong - not even Vanille, too buried under her own emotional turmoil to see Fang as more than her protector, her clan sister. There's the occasional moment, where Fang gives up - in the Fifth Ark, right before Bahamut, Lightning thinks it's the most obvious she'd ever seen, nothing but despair in Fang's eyes. She's learnt to read Fang, over time, learnt that she lies with her face and her mouth and her body - but not ever with her eyes.

And in Fang's eyes, Lightning can see the truth. 

Fang's in so much pain she's frozen with it, a mess of desolation and icy wasteland where nothing can survive. Lightning doesn't know how she still functions - she's seen, in the Corps, soldiers this shell-shocked, and most of them couldn't leave their infirmary beds. Maybe it's because of Fang's time in crystal, her memory loss - maybe because she can't remember, she can find the strength somehow to carry on, only the consequence but not the constant reminder left to weigh her down.

With all their burdens, everything they have to carry, Lightning can understand all too well how it must feel to carry everything on your shoulders, the hopes and dreams of an entire civilisation - only to fall short at the last moment; to measure yourself against an impossible mark and find yourself wanting.

And it's not fair to Fang - everything they've done, everything they're doing now seems to be playing right into fal'Cie machinations. It's not Fang's fault, none of it - but it's not a truth Fang can realise, everything locked down tight and sealed over with frost. Lightning's not the best with emotions, never has been, but she wants to help. Wants Fang to see that it's not her fault, want her to toss her that easy smile and really _feel_ it.

Wants her to look in the mirror and see the same woman that Lightning sees.

Fang can get there, Lightning's sure of it - because Lightning likes Fang, arguments aside, likes her in a way that makes her cheeks flush and her heart beat faster, and stirs butterflies low in her stomach. She wants - hopes - that she can make Fang feel the same way, but for that to happen, for Fang to really _feel_ , first she has to _thaw_.

And maybe then, when Fang can _feel_ , Lightning can tell her how she feels, show her what Fang does to her. Take her hand and press it to her chest to feel her racing heart, and then carefully, gently, press her back into the grass and show Fang what she means to her.

And as she sits, looking across their little camp at Fang, the crystal shell of Cocoon an icy blue in the night sky behind her, she wonders what she can do to break the ice.


End file.
